The Korea Herald

They were just roomies, then a bond was forged

Aug 26, 2011

Friendships are often forged in uncomfortable environs, when individuals who wouldn’t ordinarily meet are forced to interact. Such is the case in “Dreams of Significant Girls,” a young-adult novel that unfolds in a Swiss boarding school and makes roommates of three girls from radically different bac
‘The Help’ makes the leap from bookshelf to big screen

Aug 26, 2011

Movies cost a lot of money to make. Some estimates say that the average budget for a mainstream Hollywood release, including the costs of promotion and advertising, is more than $100 million. So studios don’t usually take a chance on unproved ideas (unless they’re self-explanatory concepts like “Sna
Brains and beauty on show at naked readings

Aug 22, 2011

NEW YORK (AFP) ― Sit back and enjoy readings of Shakespeare, Oscar Wilde or Henrik Ibsen, sip a glass of wine ― oh, and gaze upon the readers themselves: they’re naked.That combination of delights is on offer once a month in New York thanks to the enterprising group Naked Girls Reading.At a recent s
Biography of playwright

Aug 19, 2011

Wendy and the Lost Boys: The Uncommon Life of Wendy WassersteinBy Julie Salamon(The Penguin Press)Wherever Wendy Wasserstein went, women came up to her and wanted to talk about her struggles to find a meaningful balance of work, love and family ― all the while being thin.In plays like the Pulitzer-
Insight into Korea’s colonial era

Aug 19, 2011

Peace under HeavenBy Chae Man-sik Translated by Chun Kyung-ja(M E Sharpe, Inc.)Korea’s Japanese colonial period (1910-1945) brought many changes to Korea, and one of them was the start of capitalism here. Late author Chae Man-sik’s darkly satirical novel, “Peace under Heaven” presents a portrai
CNN anchor: Talented, imperious, scarred, publicly out

Aug 19, 2011

Want a yardstick for how far into the post-ironic era we have drifted?This summer, TV newsman Don Lemon published a memoir, “Transparent,” in which he came out as gay and talked about being sexually abused as a boy.Yet he got far more attention for a snarky three-minute segment that Jon Stewart devo
A decade after horror of Sept. 11, a new kind of storytelling

Aug 19, 2011

When details were released of the recent raid to hunt down and kill Osama Bin Laden in his Abbottabad compound, a daring narrative complete with Navy SEALs and Blackhawk helicopters, many readers of international thrillers probably had the same thought: Sounds like a scene from a Brad Thor novel.Tha
Iraq’s last king lives on in Tintin comics

Aug 16, 2011

BAGHDAD (AFP) ― Everyone here knows that the July 14 bridge, a convenient route to the U.S. Embassy and government offices in Baghdad’s fortified Green Zone, marks a 1958 coup when Iraq’s last king was murdered. But not many know that King Faisal II lives on in the classic “Tintin” comic books.This
American writer talks about owning Brooklyn deli with his Korean in-laws

Aug 15, 2011

Korean-language edition of Ben Ryder Howe’s memoir ‘My Korean Deli’ releasedFor Ben Ryder Howe, a self-identified WASP working as a literary man on the Upper East Side, owning a deli in Brooklyn was certainly an adventure.It was in 2002 that Howe, married to Korean-born corporate lawyer Gab, decided
Light side of Fitzgerald

Aug 12, 2011

“A Short Autobiography” By F. Scott Fitzgerald and James L. W. West III(Scribner)An often light but still poignant side of F. Scott Fitzgerald is evident in this compilation of 19 of his previously published items and articles, written mostly for popular magazines during 1920-1940.Edited by Fitzgera
Imagined Garden of Eden

Aug 12, 2011

Paradise Lust: Searching for the Garden of EdenBy Brook Wilensky-Lanford(Grove Press)It’s a challenge: Choose the location for the original Garden of Eden from the 17 suggested by this book’s new map.In the first two chapters of the book of Genesis, God is quoted as pinpointing the fruitful area whe
Parenting guide for the college years urges empathy

Aug 12, 2011

It hadn’t occurred to me that my husband and I might skip the college family weekend this fall, when our older son becomes a freshman. But the authors of “Don’t Tell Me What to Do, Just Send Money” have given me pause.Parents and their college-age sons and daughters are tied by an electronic umbilic
Author returns to Alaska for fish and stories

Aug 12, 2011

It took 10 years of nonstop classes, workshops and study for Melinda Moustakis to earn her Ph.D in writing.In the process, she had work published in serious literary journals around the country and picked up one of the most coveted prizes in American literature, the 2011 Flannery O’Connor Award for
Best-selling children’s novel to be sold in Germany

Aug 9, 2011

A translated version of a best-selling South Korean children’s novel about the adventures of a hen who escapes her coop in search of freedom will soon be sold in Germany, the book’s local publisher here said Tuesday.“The book will be published in Germany and other German-speaking countries sooner or
Korean author debuts in English with popular novel

Aug 7, 2011

NEW YORK (AP) --There's a big difference between ``mother'' and ``mom.''``Mother'' is someone to be respected, perhaps held at arm's length. But ``mom'' is an intimate name. It's the woman on the floor playing with her child, wisps of hair falling around her face, instead of the woman in the starche